Blanche de la Force flees from an overbearing father, a society marked by coldness and brutality, and her own fear into a convent. Here she hopes to find peace and tranquility, but the secluded religious community is also marked by power struggles, psychological manipulation, and oppression. When the revolutionary processes no longer stop at convent life, Blanche and her sisters must decide: give up their community or die for the faith?
In his Dialogues des Carmélites, Francis Poulenc draws on a historical event: in 1794, 16 Carmelite nuns from Compiègne climbed the scaffold singing. In the opera, contemporary events are echoed in the conversations of the extraordinary women.
House director Elisabeth Stöppler follows with psychological subtlety the small and large conflicts that can be traced in the by no means only idyllic convent life and questions the decisions that lead to the martyrdom of the women.
Text source and further event information:
http://www.staatstheater-mainz.com/web/veranstaltungen/oper1617/carmelites
